The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-11-18


famous piece, entitled the "Devilis
Sou ata," a dream ingenious but faulty,
for all melody descends from Heaven, and
only discords ascend from hell. All
feuds, controversies, back
billings and revenges are the DEVILS
sonata, are diabolic fugue, are de-
moniac phantasy, are grand march Of
doom, are allegro Of perditiOn.
But IL in this world things in general
are out Of tune to our frau ear, how much
more 50 to ears angelic and deific. 1t
takes skilled artist fully to appreciate
disagreement OF sound. Many have no
capacity to detect defect Of musical er-
ecution, and, though there was in one
bar as many of enses against harmony as
could crowd in between the lower + Of the
bass and the higher G. Of the soprano, IL
would give them no discomfort, while on
the forehead of the educated artist beads
Of perspiration would stand out as a re-
suit Of the narrowing dissonance. While
an amateur was performing a piano
and had just struck the wrong chord,
John Sebastian Bach, the immortal COM
poser, entered the room, and the amateur
rose in embarrassment and Bach rushed
past the host, who stepped forward to
greet him, and before the keyboard had
stopped vibrating, put his adroit hand
upon the keys changed the painful in
harmony into glorious cadence. Then
Bach turned and gave salutation to the
host who had invited him.
But the worst Of all discords is moral
discOrd. IL society and the world are
plainly discordant 20 imperfect man,
what must they be to a perfect God?
People try to define what sin is. it seems
to me that sin Is getting out OF harmony
with God n disagreement with His holi-
ness, with His dignity, with His love, with
His commands; our viii cashing with His
will, the finite dashing the infinite, the
frail against the puissant, the created
against the Creator. II thousand mu-
sicians, with flute, and cornet-a-piston.
and trumpet, and violoncello, and haut-
boy, and trombone, and all the wind and
stringed Instruments that ever gathered
in Dusseldorf Jubilee should resolve that
they would play out Of tune, and put con-
cord to the rack, and make the place wild
with shrieking, and grating and rasping
sounds, they could not make such a pam
demonium as that which RACES in a sinful
soul when God listens to the play OF its
thoughts, passions and emotions-discord,
lifelong discord, maddening discord. The
world pays more for discord than it does
for consonance. High prices have been
paid for music. One man gave 1928 to
hear the Swedish songstress i'm New Y ork,
and another 1925 to hear her in Boston,
and another $3.50 TO hear her in Provi-
dence. Fabulous prices have been paid
for sweet sounds, but far more has been
paid for discord. The Crimean war cost
81, 100000 900. and our American civil war
over $4,000, 100000 aud the war debts of
professed Christian nations are about Sl5,-
600, 100000. The world pays for this red
ticket, which admits it to the saturnalia Of
broken bones, and death agonies, and de-
stroyed cities, and plowed graves, and
crushed hearts, any amount of money
Satan asks. Discord Dscord
But I have to tell you that the song that
the morning stars sang together at tho
laying of the worlds cornerstone is to be
resumed again. Mozart's greatest over
ture was composed one night when he
was several times overpowered with
sleep, and artists say they can tell
the places in the music where he was
falling asleep, and the places where he
awakened. SO the overture of the morn
ing stars, spoken of in my text, has been
asleep, but it will awaken and be more
grandly rendered by the evening stars Of
the worlds existence than by the morn
ing stars, and the vespers will be sweeter
than the mathis. The work of all good
mon and women, and Of all good churches,
and all reform associations, is to bring the
race back 20 the original harmony. The
rebelliOus heart TO be attuned, social life
to be attuned commercial ethics to be at
tuned Internationally to be attuued,
hemispheres TO be attuned. But by what
force and in what way?
In Olden times the choristers had a tun-
| inE-forlC with two prongs, and they would
strike it on the back of pew or music-rack,
and put it to the ear, and then start the
tune, and all tho other voices would Join.
In modern orchestra the leader has a
complete instrument, rightly attuned,
and he sounds that, and all the other per-
formers turn the keys of their in
struments to make them respond,
and sound the bow over the string, and
| listen, and sound ont over again, until all
the keys are screwed to concert pitch, and
| the discords melt into one great SYM
| phony, and the curtain hoists, and the
| baton taps, and audiences are raptured
/ with Schumann's paradise and the
Peri" or Rossini's "Stabat Mater" OF
Bach's "Mngnihcat" in d, or Gounod's
Redemption"
Now our world can never DO attuned
| by an imperfect instrument. Even a Gre
mona would not do. Heaven has ordained
the only instrument. and it il made out OF
the wood of the cross, and the voices,
| cantatrices OF the first Christmas night,
when Heaven serenaded the earth with:
Glory 70 God in the highest, ana on earth
peace good win 60 men.
Lest we start too far of and get lost in
generalities, wo had better begin with
ourselves-get our own hearts and life liz
! harmony with the eternal Christ Oh, for
| His almighty spirit to 0ttune Us, TO chord
our life with His life, aud bring us into
unison with all that is pure and self sac
ri6cing and heavenly. The strings Of
our nature are an broken and twisted, and
/ the bow Is so slack &c can not evoke any
thing melihuous. The instrument ma de
/ for Heaven to play on has been roughly
/ twanged aud struck by influences worldly
and demoniac. O master hand OF Christ,
| restore this split, and fractured, and de-
spoiled, and unstrung nature until first it
| shall wall out for our sin, and then thrill
with divine pardon,
The whole wo8d must also be nttuned
/ by the same power. A few days ago /
was in the Fairbanks Weighing Scale
| Mandatory Of Vermont six hundred
| hands, and they have never had a strike.
| Complete harmony between labor and cap
/ ital, the operatives OF scores of years in
/ their beautiful homes near by the man.
| sions Of the manufacturers whose in
veution and Christian behavior made the
great enterprise. So all the world over
/ labor and capital viii be brought in
| euphony.
You may have heard vvhe. Is called the
4 anvil Chorus" composed by Verdi. a
/ tune played by hammers, great and small.
| now with mighty stroke, and now
/ with heavy stroke, beating a great
| iron anvil. That is what the
world has got 20 come to-anvil
| chorus, yard-stick chorus, shuttle chorus,
/ trowel chorus, crowbar chorus, pick-axe
] chorus, rold-miue chorus. rhfl-tracx
1 chorus, locomotive chorus. It can be done,
and il viii bo done So all social life viii
/ be attuned by the Gospel harp. There will
/ be as many classes in society as now. but
| the classes viii not be regulated by birth,
/ or wealth, or accident, but by tho scale Of
virtue and benevolen ce, AID people viii
| DO assigned to their places as good, or
I very good, or most excellent. So, also,
i commercial life viii be attuned, and there